THE GOOD

On­line re­tailer Ama­zon cel­e­brated its 20-year an­niver­sary as a listed firm on 15 May, when it listed at $18 a share. Up 63 990% since its ini­tial pub­lic of­fer­ing (IPO), Ama­zon ranks as the best-per­form­ing US-listed IPO since 1995, ac­cord­ing to Dealogic. This means $100 in­vested in Ama­zon stock at the IPO would be worth nearly $64 000 to­day. By com­par­i­son, the to­tal re­turn on the S&P 500 over the same pe­riod is about 300%, ac­cord­ing to ft.com. Dur­ing the dot­com crash, its shares dropped as low as $5.51. Ama­zon’s mar­ket cap of $450bn com­fort­ably ex­ceeds the $230bn for Walmart, the largest brick-and-mor­tar re­tailer, ft.com re­ported.